Early Monday morning, a small group of demonstrators chanted slogans against corona policy and for freedom under Beijing's Liangma Bridge until 2 a.m.

The police had encircled them there while motorists honked their horns on the bridge in solidarity.

During the night, several participants expressed the expectation to the FAZ that they would meet again at this point on Monday evening.

So that a movement could grow out of the first protest.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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But on Monday evening, a completely different picture presented itself: Dozens of police cars and personnel carriers formed long rows along the street.

Their flashing lights, which they demonstratively let run, could be seen from miles away.

The lights were off along the Liangma Canal, where Sunday's Beijing rally began.

Darkness, silence and nervousness reigned where many Beijingers usually take their evening stroll.

It was similar in Shanghai.

The part of Wulumuqi Street where hundreds of young people had vented their displeasure at the harsh corona policy and Xi Jinping's dictatorship over the weekend was blocked with barriers.

Passers-by who took photos were forced to delete them.

"Do you hear how the people sing"

After the police had largely let the rallies in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Wuhan run their course over the weekend, the authorities used intimidation and censorship on Monday.

In Beijing, there were reports that at least some demonstrators received calls from the police.

It can be assumed that a number of participants were identified by surveillance cameras, police videos and cell phone tracking.

No major new protests were reported by the evening, except in Hong Kong.

The police are obviously trying to prevent a movement from growing out of individual actions.

It was all the more remarkable that, despite the draconian National Security Law, dozens of students on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong sang "Hear how the people sing", one of the songs of the democracy movement of 2019. They held up white sheets, the symbol of the new protests.

It is not yet possible to predict how the situation will develop.

That depends on various factors.

How will the authorities react if there are more rallies?

Will possible further arrests intimidate the participants or fuel their resolve?

Are individual demands for a relaxation of the corona measures met in order to take pressure off the boiler?

Will the demonstrators have the stamina to gather regularly in freezing temperatures or will the protest fizzle out?

And finally: will influential opponents of Xi in the Communist Party try to exploit the protests against him?

As expected, the state media did not report a word on Monday about the rallies that took place at numerous universities and in various cities over the weekend.

A statement by the Foreign Ministry suggested that Beijing could use tried and tested tools and try to discredit the demonstrators as the West's henchmen.

A spokesman for the ministry said on Monday that "forces with ulterior motives" had made a connection between the high-rise fire in Urumqi and corona restrictions on social networks.

The suspicion that the fire brigade had been hindered by such had triggered the protests.

The former editor-in-chief of the party's newspaper, the Global Times, Hu Xijin, who remains an influential propagandist, aimed in a similar direction.

It is difficult for participants to control the direction of the protests, but they could "easily be hijacked by other forces and become a flood that destroys all of our lives." The internet was massively censored.

A search of Wulumuqi Street in Shanghai turned up only four encounters.

Search results for the harmless word Shanghai almost exclusively showed texts from official sources.